Realistic expectations for 50th anniversary???

[Brave Princess]

We are planning our 2nd WDW trip for 2021. The weeks we are looking at is the first week of Feb (we've been before this week and LOVED the weather and low crowds), or the first week of Nov, as it will be my 40th, my oldest's 16th and my youngest's 3rd birthdays (we would grab a birthday button for the middle child, too, because why not and being a summer birthday, we'll never celebrate it at Disney). I'm so in love with the idea of celebrating our birthdays in such a magical way. But it is just a month out from the 50th anniversary. We have a lot of time to plan and are using an agent who will be up and grabbing all of our ADRs and FPs. So, I'm looking for some WDW veterans advice. Are we crazy to go during the anniversary and should we just stick with the low crowd Feb week? Or is this worth it and manageable with a good plan in place?

 

[Lindsey17]

Ugh this is my struggle right now as well. We've also just decided that we're going in 2021 as well and now I'm trying to figure out when the best time would be to actually go. We typically go in August, but with the 50th in Oct I feel like it may be more crowded than usual. I'm not sure I care about being there for all the celebrations of the 50th, but would like to know when they actually start celebrating before I book my trip. 2021 packages will most likely be released in June as they are every other year so I'm hoping they announce when the celebrations will begin so I can plan accordingly. I was thinking either our typical August or possibly even May. Can't decide what to do and I'm extremely impatient lol.

 

[focusondisney]

Eh, that week in February isn’t all that low anymore. Some posters have been having trouble finding rooms for the weekends especially. There are large cheer events that book lots of rooms at the value resorts. As long as you stay away from Veteran’s Day & Jersey week, early November might be better. And you might get a Christmas party in there too.

edit to add: no one really knows when the 50th events will start or how they will effect crowds yet. But most expect the kick off to be sometime in the summer, not October.

 

[Brave Princess]

Eh, that week in February isn’t all that low anymore. Some posters have been having trouble finding rooms for the weekends especially. There are large cheer events that book lots of rooms at the value resorts. As long as you stay away from Veteran’s Day & Jersey week, early November might be better. And you might get a Christmas party in there too.

edit to add: no one really knows when the 50th events will start or how they will effect crowds yet. But most expect the kick off to be sometime in the summer, not October.

It was only 2018 we stayed that week, over superbowl. And we did and are going to do either a Tuesday to Wednesday or Wednesday to Thursday trip either way, so only one weekend. The only really big crowds were at MK for the superbowl MVP parade. We made that an Epcot day and enjoyed really low crowds. We wanted to see the parade, so we park hopped there and I was glad we avoided the park for the day. We also didnt stay at a value resort and don't intend to next time either, so that might make a difference too. My kids have friends that go for dance and cheer and events like that and they dont really seem to get a lot of park time.

 

[DebbieB]

I was there for the 25th anniversary in 1996. It started October 1, we went mid-November. It was fine.

Disneyland opened 7/17/1955. Both 50th and 60th started in May. I don't think it means that WDW will start in summer, I would bet on the actual date of 10/1 like the 25th.

 

[katiec786]

We're planning on mid-Sept 2021, we were there that time last year and loved the crowd levels/weather. We had initially planned on 2022 after all the 50th madness but then realised that was too far away and we couldn't wait that long Half of me is hoping that the 50th shenanigans will kick off on the 1st and we'll miss all the craziness, but then half of me would love to see it all...

 

[Wild4Walt]

The 50th is still hard to predict because they haven't announced the official celebration dates. We're wanting to go for the celebration but are looking to avoid the week before, the week of and the week after October 1st. I would think while the celebration may be at it's height during that time I also think it will be the busiest.

 

[Fangorn]

My current plans are to arrive the last week of September and definitely be there for the actual 50th on October 1. That's a Friday, and it also happens to be Epcot's 39th birthday and most importantly, it's my birthday as well. I've celebrated many a birthday at WDW (usually spending the day at Epcot).

Disney has tended to make the celebration of major milestones last for about 18 months. I can easily see the anniversary promotional period starting on July 1, 2021, and going throughout all of 2022. This would be especially true if they do something akin to "the Year of a Million Dreams" (which actually ran for over 2 years) as part of the celebration. I think part of the timing of the celebration will be determined on exactly when Tron and Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind open.

Steve

 

[White Rose]

We are planning to being in MK on the first, going the end of sept to oct 3 and changing hotels from WL to Contemp for the end of the trip to make it easier to get back tothe hotel from MK. we honeymooned in WDW an go every 5 years or so.
Oct 2021 will be 20 years since I met my hubby (we met at a Halloween party!) ....And 18 years married!

 

[BorderTenny]

The Super Bowl is in Tampa next year, which likely mans many more people tacking Disney days onto either end of a Super Bowl trip than may have for this year's game in Miami.

 

[DVC_HK]

We are booking our DVC rooms as soon as possible at 11 months for the last week in September and be up on Friday early for MK on the 1st

 

[Brave Princess]

The Super Bowl is in Tampa next year, which likely mans many more people tacking Disney days onto either end of a Super Bowl trip than may have for this year's game in Miami.

Good to know. We are really aiming for the first week of Nov then, and this really helps with that. We were there for SB 2018 and while we enjoyed low crowds, I'm sure it being in Tampa will bring much larger crowds.

 

[Brave Princess]

We are booking our DVC rooms as soon as possible at 11 months for the last week in September and be up on Friday early for MK on the 1st

We are using an agent this time who will be up as early as possible to book the room for us at day 499 (not DVC). Day 499 will be this June for Nov 2021, so I'm confident we'll be good with our reservations.

 

[mjkacmom]

Eh, that week in February isn’t all that low anymore. Some posters have been having trouble finding rooms for the weekends especially. There are large cheer events that book lots of rooms at the value resorts. As long as you stay away from Veteran’s Day & Jersey week, early November might be better. And you might get a Christmas party in there too.

edit to add: no one really knows when the 50th events will start or how they will effect crowds yet. But most expect the kick off to be sometime in the summer, not October.

The first week of November is jersey week.

 

[focusondisney]

The first week of November is jersey week.

Well then February will probably be better after all.